Description
Book SynopsisThis book examines the complexity of Chineseness in China and the Chinese diaspora. Using critical sociolinguistic and discourse analytical approaches, the chapters reveal the power dynamics and ideologies underlying the varied ways Chineseness is performed, represented and contested. Together they highlight four perspectives on Chineseness: the multiplicity of Chineseness, aspirational Chineseness, chronotopes of Chineseness and the cultural politics of Chineseness. It is argued that Chineseness is best understood as an ideologically-constructed variable, the articulation of which is deeply embedded within the dynamics of neoliberal globalization, rising nationalism, persistent Western hegemony, and shifting global geopolitics.
Trade ReviewAt a time when China’s global presence is undoubted, this book reminds us of the imperative urgency for interrogating the notion of Chineseness. What makes this volume important is that it compels us to go beyond discussions on what Chineseness is, towards examination of how it’s done and what it does to whom under which sociopolitical conditions. * Miguel Pérez-Milans, University College London, UK *
This book convincingly demonstrates how global imaginaries permeate Chinese communities at home and abroad, through the mobility of texts, people, and understandings of language and citizenship. A welcome addition to research on language and globalization, it insightfully probes how multilingualism has been promoted over the long history of Chinese migration. * Adrienne Lo, University of Waterloo, Canada *
...this book offers a rich source of information about the project of ‘unpacking Chineseness’ (190). The variety of types of data analysed, as well as the diversity of research sites, makes this book relevant for those who are interested in Chineseness, language, and identity, as well as sociolinguistics and discourse analytical research.
* Leying Li, IOE, University College London, UK, Language in Society 51, 2022 *
Table of ContentsContributors
Chapter 1. Shuang Gao: Introduction: Chineseness as Competing Discourses
Chapter 2. Jing Huang: Chineseness in Diaspora: Multilingualism, Heteroglossia and Fluid Ethnicity
Chapter 3. Luke Lu: When ‘Chineseness’ Is Not Preferred: Accounts of Academically Elite Students from China in Singapore’s Schools
Chapter 4. Elaine Chung and Xuan Wang: Joseonjok YouTubers: Translating Vernacular Chineseness in South Korea
Chapter 5. Jessica Birnie-Smith: Framing Chineseness and Indonesianness on the Periphery
Chapter 6. Eric S. Henry: Narrating the Future Self: Strategic Stylisation and Cosmopolitan Stancetaking in Chinese IELTS Preparation Classes
Chapter 7. Shuang Gao: Coffee, Social Space and Middle-Class Romance: Customer Writings in an Independent Coffee Shop in China
Chapter 8. Mingyi Hou: The Authenticity, Cultural Authority and Credibility of Weibo Public Intellectuals
Chapter 9. Xiaoxiao Chen: ‘Foreigners’ in One’s Own Land: Analysing Touristic Representations of Chineseness in the New York Times
Chapter 10. Lionel Wee: Commentary
Index
